Who We’re Hiring At…Prestage Farms

Warren Perry
Assistant HR Manager
1985 NC State alumnus

Prestage Farms is a leading pork and poultry producer with facilities across North Carolina.

What qualities are you looking for in the “student of tomorrow”? Why?

When I’m interviewing a new graduate, I’m looking for several things: Someone who is people-oriented, who has a strong work ethic and someone who can vouch for that – that’s a strong plus. I’m also looking for things like good attitude, courtesy and punctuality.

And we’re always looking for someone who is willing to take on new challenges.  It is important to hire people who can perform regular duties, the challenge for hiring is to recruit students who will go above and beyond.

What makes a resume stand out?

I look to make sure they’ve never taken a summer off – summers are not to be wasted. If you’re taking classes, that’s good and fine, but if you’re not, summers are your time to build your resume with work experience.

I always read a resume kind of like a story, that it’s consistently building up to where they are now. I tell people to make sure they list every job they’ve had, including fast food – some people don’t like to put that on their resume, but I tell them, there is no more accommodating person than someone who has worked in the fast food industry. Because they’ve had to wait on every kind of customer there ever is. You’ll have learned at least one skill, and that’s being accommodating and this is an important part of one’s character.

How can CALS build you the “student of tomorrow,” the kind of student you’re looking to recruit?

Probably to teach as much as possible about how to be a good advocate for agriculture, rather than just an employee of agriculture. I think a lot of the world doesn’t respect agriculture like it should, so your mission if you work in agriculture should be to make sure people understand the industry better, wherever you go and whatever you do. CALS can teach its students to be able to tell the story of agriculture and let people know where their food comes from.